ProducerChristine Vachon, who will receive the Special Teddy at the Berlin Film Festival’s queer awards ceremony on Friday, discussed her long career at this year’s Queer Academy Summit on Wednesday, including her work with Todd Haynes, LGBT cinema and the challenges of financing female-driven films.

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Nevertheless, Vachon pointed out that securing financing for female-driven films remained a major challenge.

“Female-driven stories, whether they’re gay or straight or black or Latino or whatever, are tough. They are amongst the hardest. When you’re trying the finance a female-driven story, most of the time you’re being asked, ‘Who’s the guy?’ With ‘Still Alice,’ a lot of the financing was about the guy. We used to say, it’s not called ‘Still Alice and John.’ That’s an issue. … ‘Carole’ has two bona-fide movie stars in it, and that is a big part of how it got financed.”